Caution urged on budget process

There is a lot of uncertainty in the state budget and state Rep. Harold Naughton Jr. urged Clinton selectmen Wednesday night to be cautious about local aid projections.

Naughton said he would advise selectmen to plan for level funding of aid from last year; the House local aid projections should be released next week. By the time the Senate releases its budget projections — he estimated late April or early May — there could be different figures.

February state revenues were up $28 million above estimates, but there is still uncertainty in the economy.

Both the governor and the House and Senate have proposed increases in state highway funds, but Naughton feels the 3 cent gas tax, being proposed by the House and Senate, is more likely to pass than the higher taxes proposed by the governor. The House and Senate plan would bring an additional $167,000 to Clinton.

However, selectmen Mary Rose Dickhaut and William Connolly Jr. said they would prefer not burdening the taxpayers with a gas tax at this time.

Connolly said he is most concerned about the cost of special education, which is forcing the Clinton School Department to request a large increase in the coming year’s budget; most of the $1 million increase the schools are requesting is due to adding staff to handle an increase in special education.

Naughton said he is sponsoring legislation that would require the state to reimburse any town where the number of special education students is more than 2 percent above the average of abutting towns. Clinton has between 22 and 24 percent of its students needing special education services; other towns are 12 to 17 percent.

“Something is going on,” Naughton said, adding, “Why are these costs imposed on this town?”

Naughton said he cannot change the laws governing special education, but can propose ways to help pay the costs.

Connolly said that special education costs are forcing towns into financial crisis.

“It is not sustainable,” Connolly said. “If we are not getting the money from the state and cannot go over 2 1/2 percent (increase to property taxes, as set under Proposition 2 1/2 ), where is it coming from? The whole mechanism is broken.”

Selectman James LeBlanc agreed.

“How many towns are in the same position and how long before the scales tip and towns go into bankruptcy?” LeBlanc asked. “The federal government puts unrealistic expectations on the state. That’s where the change needs to start.”

Previously in the meeting, selectmen had met with Library Director Erin Klemm and Library Trustee Gloria Parkinson on the budget, and the two had expressed concern over the cost of joining the C/W MARS system, which allows libraries in a region to modernize systems with electronic tracking of books, loaning from one library to another and other services.

Klemm told selectmen that Clinton is now an online affiliate, but that option will not be offered by C/W MARS in the near future. Currently, if a town has 10,000 or fewer residents, like neighboring Lancaster, the library can join the system for between $4,000 and $6,000 a year. If a community has more residents, there is a formula that takes into consideration population and number of books in the library. Clinton has over 13,000 residents. The Clinton estimate to become a member of C/W MARS system is $34,000, though the library system is looking at restructuring its fees to reduce that amount.

Selectmen and Naughton were shocked by the cost, and Naughton agreed to look into it.

In the meantime, the library is joining a smaller system, which includes public, school and specialty libraries, which will cost $5,500 for the coming year.

In other budget discussions Wednesday night, selectmen heard from Klemm and Parks and Recreation Director Jessica Brodie that their budget proposals include raises for nonunion employees to bring them up to levels that not only are in the range of similar positions in neighboring towns, but are more in keeping with their expanded job descriptions.

But, selectmen said bringing people up to fair wages cannot be done piecemeal. Instead, a study of the wage scale needs to be done across the town. A proposal to fund a study was rejected at last year’s annual town meeting. LeBlanc proposed putting the question back on the warrant.

In other business

•A common victualler’s license was OK’d for Thuan Pham for his Chill Dessert Bar, at Woodruff Plaza, 1175 Main St., the former Curves location.

Phan said the business would be mainly self-serve, nonfat yogurt and smoothies made from fresh fruit, though frozen cakes may be added in the future.

•Selectmen voted to thank a resident who offered to pay for refurbishing the names on the Vietnam, Korean and World War II monuments, but agreed that the responsibility to maintain those monuments belongs to the town and that the money should be spent by the town. The hope is that the resident will donate to another project, perhaps for beautification around the monument.

The cost will be approximately $17,000, and the selectmen agreed that money appropriated previously for the project, plus money still in the town hall renovation project account, would be used.

“No disrepect to the donor, but I believe this is the job of the town,” Connolly said.